Edgar of England

Edgar (943 - July 8th 975) is youngest wire of Edmond Ier. It is called “the Pacific” though more authoritative than his older brother, Edwy, from which it receives the kingdoms of Northumbrie and Mercie.

Edgar was initially proclaimed king of the north of the Thames by an assembly noble Mercie NS in 958, but it succeeds Edwy officially when this one dies in October 959. Edgar immediately points out Dunstan (finally canonized as a Dunstan Saint) of exile, to appoint it bishop of Worcester, then of London and finally archbishop of Cantorbury.

The allegation according to which Dunstan would have initially refused to crown Edgar because it disapproved its lifestyle, refers to the popular history of Wulfthryth, the mistress of Edgar, a woman of Wilton which gives him a girl, Eadgyth, in 961. Dunstan remains however the adviser of Edgar during his reign.

The reign of Edgar is peaceful, and the Anglo-Saxon kingdom with its apogee. So of other kings are famous founders of England, Edgar consolidated it. Towards the end of its reign, a weakening of its constituent parts is improbable, contrary at the end of the reign of Edwy.

The monastic movement of reform which restores the Règle bénédictine in the little disciplined monastic communities, is with its maximum for the period of Dunstan, Aethelwold and Oswald. However, the range and the importance of this movement remain discussed between the academicians.

Edgar is crowned with Bath, but only in May 973, in an imperial ceremony considered not like the taking up the duties, but like the apotheosis of its reign. This ceremony, conceived by Dunstan itself, and celebrated with a poem of the Anglo-Saxon Chronic , form the base of the current English ceremony of crowning. Crowning symbolic system is a big step: a little later from other kings will come to swear fidelity with Edgar with Chester. Six kings de Grande-Bretagne, of which those of Scotland and Strathclyde, lend oath then to be the servants of the king on ground and sea. The broad outlines of the “tender with Chester” are recognized like true.

Edgar has several children. He dies the July 8th 975 with Winchester, and is buried with the Abbey of Glastonbury. He leaves two wire, Edouard the Martyr, who succeeds to him, wire of his first named wife Ethelfleda, and Ethelred, wire of his second wife Elfrida.

Death of Edgar to the conquest of Norman, no succession with the throne proceeded without engagements. The death of Edgar simplifies the situation, and seems to mark the beginning of the end of Anglo-Saxon England, in three victorious conquests, two Danish and a Norman.

External bond

Medieval Sourcebook: Dooms Anglo-Saxon: Part of the laws of the king Edgar

Simple: Edgar off England

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